“Keep things as simple as possible.” – Louie Bacaj, engineer turned entrepreneur

1. How and when did you make your first dollar online?

My first few dollars online (completely on my own) were earlier this year:

I trusted the Small Bets community and nervously became a creator on Gumroad. Three weeks later, I am humbled by the power of the internet.

Over $11,000 in sales from my first info product that I was charging $15 for at first. pic.twitter.com/OCZ1TvI3ih

— Louie Bacaj (@LBacaj) January 31, 2022

It was an exciting time.

2. How long did it take between the idea and this first dollar?

It took about two weeks, wrote about it here:

It took one week to make.

But obviously, over a decade to gain the knowledge and exp. that's in it.

Five days to think of the content, jot notes, etc.
All Saturday to make the slides and speaker notes.
All Sunday to film, over 5 hours.

A few hours to edit it down to 1.5 hours

— Louie Bacaj (@LBacaj) January 15, 2022

3. What best actionable advice would you give to someone who wants to start TODAY?

Identify what you know that you can give to the world, and start giving it away for free.

But truly giving it. That means talking about stuff you know well, not just stuff you want to learn. When you want to learn, you aren’t giving, you are asking.

Eventually, once you’ve given a lot, it will be obvious as people ask you questions. Then turn those questions into a product. A book, a course, or EVEN software if they are struggling with a certain type of problem.

Saw people struggling with Twitter threads, and built a feedback tool.

I’m thinking of building a Twitter thread writing tool. Focused on getting feedback before publishing it.

I feel like all of the existing tools treat writing like a solitary activity. But feedback from friends helps my stuff go far.

Question is, would anyone use it?

— Louie Bacaj (@LBacaj) January 25, 2022

The Thread Feedback tool is coming along 👀

It’s like Google Docs but better and for Twitter threads. Making it work on Mobile too.

I managed to give my friend from Small Bets, Catherine, a little feedback through the tool on her thread about her awesome new course pic.twitter.com/2AvDhDhSy4

— Louie Bacaj (@LBacaj) March 10, 2022

It does not make a lot of money but it’s out there and it does make some, I can always add more to it.

4. What resources would you recommend to a beginner?

I recommend starting with what you know and keeping things as simple as possible.

To truly give, you don’t need much.

About Louie